Frame tracers are computerized devices that measure the parameters of an eyeglass frame. Because each eyeglass frame can be unique in minute detail, the frame data measured from a frame tracer is critical to create exact results when manufacturing a pair of eyeglasses. A typical frame tracer will measure from 100 to as many as 1500 or more data points that describe the lens area of the frame, and many measure the right and left eyes independently. Additionally, the frame tracer measures other values including the curve of the frame and the distance between the right and left lenses. In this specification, the collection of measurements taken by a frame tracer of a single frame is referred to as a frame trace.
Conventionally, two separate sets of data are required to make prescription eyewear: the frame trace and the prescription. The prescription contains at least a patient's vision correction needs, and may also contain his name or other identifier, date of prescription, lens material or other information. As used herein, the prescription includes all data required to make prescription eyewear excluding the frame trace. In the conventional preparation of prescription eyewear, the eye care professional, such as an optometrist, ophthalmologist, optician, or an employee of one, generates the prescription order, which is then transmitted to the lens manufacturing laboratory. The eye care professional also sends the frame to the laboratory, either separately or with the prescription order. The laboratory associates the frame with the proper prescription order, measures the frame trace, and produce lenses to fit. The laboratory production process traditionally takes about seven days, mostly due to wait times for frame delivery and the order-association procedure.
More eyecare professionals are using frame tracers at their business locations instead of sending the frame to the lens manufacturer. It is therefore increasingly desirable to store the frame trace on an office computer in order to submit the data to a laboratory for creation of the lenses. However, the volume and type of data contained in one frame trace makes it prohibitive to manually process the data by retyping or reentering the data into a computerized order. To solve this problem, certain frame tracers can be connected to the office computer so that the frame trace can be transferred to the computer and stored on it. Unfortunately, however, due to format incompatibilities, this leaves the problem of storing the frame trace and prescription data in separate files. If transmitted to the lens maker, two files have to be transmitted or appended together, similar to the conventional order-association procedure. It would be desirable to integrate the frame trace with the prescription order.
The transmission of the frame trace to the office computer, however, does facilitate online ordering. An eye care professional enters the prescription order data into an internet-based form, associates the frame trace file to the form, and transmits the order either directly to the order recipient, namely the lens manufacturing laboratory's computer system or to a third party value-added service provider such as VisionWeb, www.visionweb.com, and Eyefinity, www.eyefinity.com. See FIG. 1 which shows a prior art example of importing a frame trace file so that the frame trace data are associated with the prescription order. Benefits to the eyecare professional include faster processing of the order because it is entered one time and the frame does not need to be delivered before processing and because error-checking and correcting are done at the time the order is entered. This can reduce the processing time to one or two days.
However, this system of online ordering is cumbersome: it requires a standalone program to receive the frame trace from the frame tracer, both the eyecare professional and the laboratory must manually match frame trace files to prescription orders, and an extensive file naming convention must be developed in order to maintain the proper association of frame traces to prescription orders. It would be advantageous to facilitate more direct communication between an internet browser and the frame tracer, so that frame trace information can be inserted directly into an online order.
Unfortunately, due to a design philosophy regarding security, an internet browser does not inherently access all resources of the office computer, such as devices that are peripherally connected to the computer via the computer's serial ports (COM ports). Frame tracers typically use the serial ports to connect to the host computer program. Because an internet browser does not access the serial ports directly, the internet browser cannot communicate with a frame tracer. It would be desirable to effectively connect the browser to the serial ports and thereby receive a frame trace.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a method for ordering prescription eyeglasses via the internet. It is a further object to provide an Internet browser software component that can communicate with a frame tracer connected to a computer and receive frame traces from the frame tracer. Another object of this invention is to provide an eyeglass ordering system that utilizes the internet browser software component.